The Bias is in the Missing

Five Miles Downrange : I think that what I am going to say is controversial, and some may say that I’m putting this out there for personal gain, and still other trolls may say some hateful things about me…my work. And that’s “ok”. I mean, ’m probably not the greatest writer, nor probably the greatest “individual” and I have made mistakes and will probably make many more. I just don’t think this is one of them. If you are looking for fun in this post, you might just want to scroll by. This is a rant, and probably not the most PC one at best.

I am damned tired of hearing about every aspect of the death of Gabby Petito.

Now when I say this, I’m not trying to minimize the hurt and pain of her loved ones. I am not trying to say her life was meaningless or those responsible for her death should not be brought to justice. What I am saying is I am tired of hearing about it.

I think it’s really biased and stupid of the media to be putting so much effort . Ok, we can argue that the first 72 hours of a missing person is the most important. We can argue about the dozens of cases that were brought to justice because of the media (frankly, I don’t have any of these numbers). What I think, though, the likelihood of “whomever” getting a fair trial with every piece of evidence is probably going to be up for grabs - so the media isn’t really doing the trial a favor. But what galls me the most is the bias. This entire thing has been on the front page of CNN, FOX, ABC for over a week now… and the only news groups that seem to have gotten this right is NPR and (what !?) NBC.

What I am talking about is (for lack of a better term, I’m stealing this) “Missing White Woman Syndrome”…I think I would term this as “Missing White Person Syndrome” given what I think is the origins, but more on this in a minute. NBC has a very well written article (link here) which highlights the disparity of the all-out-media-blitz to find Petito (and speculate on her demise) as opposed to a woman who was murdered not two hours East with no coverage. Over 710 Indigenous women have gone missing in Wyoming alone over the past decade . The University of Wyoming reports that 100% of missing persons cases for Indigenous women will still be unsolved after 30 days. NPR (link here) states that Since 2000, Indigenous people have made up 21% of homicides in Wyoming, even though they are only 3% of the population . 30% of Indigenous homicide victims had any media coverage. That number is closer to 51% for whites. In comparison, a Wyoming State report (see NPR link) stated that even with media coverage, the emphasis on Indigenous women was based on a negative characterization (i.e. drug usage, prostitution, etc.) when compared to stories on whites…and that deters their loved ones from coming forward to media for help.

As I stated in my post on MMIWG on 5 May (link here):

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) in the United States has also been difficult to gather. Contributing to this difficulty is the fact that many times when Indigenous women and girls go missing, or when Indigenous murder victims are unidentified, forensic evidence has not been accurately collected or preserved by local law enforcement. Cases have been allowed to quickly go "cold", and crucial evidence has been "lost", or never forwarded on from local law enforcement to the appropriate agencies.

When I take a look at writings and literary/movies, the disparity and bias is pervasive even there. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express was based on the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh kidnapping (link here) which happened not 2 years before. It captured the minds and hearts of every American, and I think set the tone for media and public interest in such cases. At least the latest version of the story (2017) attempted to break the racism wall with Leslie Odom Jr. playing Dr. Arbuthnot and a speech by Daisy Ridley regarding miscegenation..but I digress. What was the missing and murdered person of color rate in 1932 ? I’m sure there are numbers out there somewhere, but for the purposes outlined above - how good could they really be ? For grins, here’s a research paper from the Journal of American History : Less Crime, More Punishment (link here). Media of the age was certainly biased in favor of the whites during this period.

The book Mindhunter and television show (link here) highlighted bias in the media with regards to African Americans. Specifically, Episodes 16-19 as they address the Atlanta Murders of 1979-1981 (link here). 28 African-American children, adolescents, and adults were killed. It wasn’t until after a full year of these murders that the media became involved (link here). And it wasn’t until then that a suspect was apprehended.

One of my favorite shows is True Detective (link here), especially Season 1. It contains horror references (Carcosa, The Yellow King) used by other authors such as Stephen King. It is fantastic. But even here, while the protagonists hunt for a serial killer that we see bias - all the victims are white despite Louisiana being over 35% African American. Even Woody Harrelson points out looking at the data - are you biased because you are seeing what you want to see with all these missing girls ? How many of them are runaways ? How can you be sure they are related ?

For the MMIW, there isn’t even that correlation being looked at. Because the data just isn’t there. Nobody’s bothered to look.

As tired as I may be of the topic of this death, there are other people out there with questions that don’t even have a chance of rest. And they have more to lose than I.

Noting here the image is from Soni López-Chávez. I thought it meaningful. https://www.instagram.com/soni_artist/?hl=en